Tasmanians deserve the truth about the state of our economy, not misleading claims from a delusional Treasurer.

Treasurer Barnett’s assertion that Tasmania is ‘outperforming the nation’ fails to acknowledge a growing pile of data, reports and credit outlook downgrades which suggest the exact opposite.

It also fails to acknowledge that our economy is being stimulated by debt-funded public spending as was pointed out by Saul Eslake’s UTAS presentation last month.

This strategy might offer artificial short-term relief and allow the Treasurer to fluff himself with the odd monthly business survey, but it comes at the cost of long-term economic sustainability and puts the financial future of Tasmanians at risk.

When public debt is the main driver of economic performance, it’s a red flag, not a success story.

Treasurer Barnett needs to stop misleading the public about the state of Tasmania’s economy.

Data on the Tasmanian economy has been consistent across the board – our economy is flatlining and jobs are vanishing under the Liberal minority government.

So far in 2025:

• Moody’s downgraded Tasmania’s credit outlook from stable to negative, following S&P’s November downgrade.
• The ABS has released figures showing more jobs have been lost since Premier Rockliff took his government into minority than were lost during COVID.
• The CommSec State of the States report highlighted that Tasmania is the only state with negative employment growth and is now bottom of the leaderboard for annual growth rates of the eight economic indicators.
• Deloitte’s Business Outlook forecasts Tasmania will have the weakest economic growth in the nation through to 2030 and confirmed that Tasmania is facing a jobs crisis.

Josh Willie MP
Shadow Treasurer